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SALT LAKE CITY — After three confirmed cases and 400 people who were exposed to measles, the outbreak in Utah is over.
Utah public health officials said that no new cases have been found after two separate three-week quarantines, and declared the outbreak over in Utah. There are still 133 people in seven states who are associated with the outbreak, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Doctors identified the first measles cases in January after three people contracted the disease at Disneyland in mid-December. The 400 other people were monitored and tested as they came in contact with the disease.
“It’s at least two incubation periods past the last case that we had, and if we can go that far out without any new additional cases, then we can consider that the end of that particular outbreak, so we haven’t had any new outbreak,” said Rebecca Ward, who works with the Utah Department of Health.
According to Lance Madigan of the Utah County Health Department, the incubation period is a 21-day quarantine.
“This is a case of public health working exactly the way it should have,” Madigan said. “We got ahead of it. We were able to quarantine the people that had the disease. They kept it from spreading to others so we didn’t have more cases.”
We could always see this happen again. That's why we continue to stress vaccination.
–Lance Madigan, Utah County Health Department
However, there is still a threat of catching measles since there are still cases across the country, and both Ward and Madigan talked about how important it is to get vaccinated.
“We could always see this happen again. That’s why we continue to stress vaccination,” Madigan said.
Ward and Madigan talked about how measles is preventable with the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. Measles is extremely contagious for those who are not immunized and it is a very serious disease.
“There’s still measles circulating, there’s well over 100 cases,” Ward said. “Even in California and certainly throughout the nation, people need to still be vigilant, still need to be vaccinated.”
Last year there were zero cases of measles, and in 2012 there was the last documented case of domestic measles. The year 2011 had a few more outbreaks, but not necessarily as large as this year's.
Most of the cases come from international travel and contact. Amusement parks like Disneyland have a high chance of international visitors who may have the disease. So, while measles has been essentially eradicated in America, other countries can still import the disease and create an outbreak.
“As we say, it’s a plane ride away,” Ward said.
